The Right To A Union.

    An appeal from United Farm Workers for solidarity in a long hard fought campaign.

Workers are this close to a contract at Gerawan. Please help.

This is an urgent message for you because we don’t have much time. Workers at Gerawan Farming, one of the world’s largest fruit growers, are trying to resolve workplace mistreatment issues with a contract to guarantee fair treatment and wages. And the clock is ticking.

      They voted for a union in 1990 and have negotiated with the company without success. Now, thanks to a law that supporters like you helped us pass eleven years ago, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has assigned a Mediator to finalize the unresolved issues contained in a contract.

      Workers are close to gaining what they have needed and longed for. They’re asking the ALRB mediator to create a contract that ensures that:

• The company pays workers fairly and counts ALL the hours they work.
• The company provides adequate protection for workers working with TOXIC chemicals.
• The company does not REUSE disposable safety equipment.
• The company STOPS unreasonably pressuring workers.
• The company provides NECESSARY equipment like wheelbarrows for moving fruit.
• The company provides CLEAN bathrooms and GOOD water for drinking.
• The company does not discipline or discharge workers unless there is JUST CAUSE.

       These are just some of the issues workers have raised. You may have seen slick TV ads where Gerawan Farming claims to care about farm workers rights. If so, then why have charges been filed against Gerawan accusing its management of impeding ALRB agents from talking to workers and investigating claims of unlawful actions?

      Maybe it’s because workers don’t feel that their employer is as caring as it tells the public. In fact, Gerawan cares so little about its workers having a contract, that it has filed a lawsuit against the State of California so that that a court can declare that the State Mediation law is unconstitutional, even though a Court of Appeals has already ruled that the law is constitutional. Gerawan has spared no expense, hiring three separate high-priced law firms to represent it in court.

       That’s why we must stand with the workers of Gerawan to help them so Gerawan will implement and respect the contract the State Mediator decides.

     We need your help. Time is very short. Under the State Mediation process, the Mediator could issue his decision by about mid-September. Without your support, Gerawan workers will face the high-priced legal teams of giant agricultural companies alone. Thank you.

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Dangerous to be in a Union.

      We should never take for granted that which our forefathers suffered and struggled to gain. So many things in today's society that we take as part of a civilised society, weren't there a generation or so ago. Most of what the ordinary people fought and struggled to achieve has to be guarded or it will be taken away from us. In this type of society it is an endless fight to move forward and to hold onto what we have achieved. Here in the UK being a member of a trade union is accepted as your choice, and once a member you don't expect to be punished. However in some parts of the world, being a union member can mean beatings, torture, prison and in some cases even death. The state will go to great lengths to crush any attempt by the people to organise to control their own lives, such ploys as labelling them terrorists, or shouting "national security", allows them to repress such movements. We don't have to go to the darkest corners of the world to find an example of how the state will try to destroy attempts by ordinary people who organise to improve their conditions. Most people see Turkey as a modern civilised country, but being a union member there is fraught with danger.

This from LabourStart:

       In the early morning of Tuesday, 19 February, Turkish police targeted members and leaders of the public sector union KESK, arresting at least 100 of them, including members of the teachers union.  

      Overall, 167 arrest warrants were issued for trade unionists.  The police have accused the trade unionists of links with terrorist organizations.

      This is not the first time that the Turkish authorities have used anti-terrorism laws to crack down on trade unionists. On 10 April, the a trial will begin against 72 additional KESK members and leaders who were arrested in June 2012.

       The International Trade Union Confederation, the Education International, Public Services International and the European Federation of Public Service Unions, representing tens of millions of organized workers around the world have launched a major new campaign demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all the arrested union members.  They also demand that the Turkish state stop harassing and labeling trade unionists as terrorists. 

 

Please take a minute and add your name to the online campaign - click here.

 

        And please make sure that your union shares this message with thousands of its members -- this is the only way to grow this campaign into something so massive that we cannot be ignored. If thousands of us send off messages, and soon, we may be able to get the Turkish government to back down and to release our brothers and sisters from jail.

 

Thank you.  And - solidarity forever!

 

Eric Lee

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HORIZONTALISM IN THE WORKPLACE.

Horizontal Organisation In The Workplace.  

A Talk by A.Rice

A Public Event for Radical Glasgow by Martin O'Neil

Tuesday 6th March 7pm-9pm

The Electron Club
CCA
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow G2 3JD

        As managerialism kicks in and workplace pressures increase, creating a strong united voice is vital to protecting ourselves as workers. Our Union branch divided the single Rep’s role into 7 jobs,so sharing the power. We found that evolving union structures from a hierarchy to a shared power model was crucial to maintaining a presence in these brutal times. 

Facebook Event Page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/326646870716144/?context=create#!/events/326646870716144/

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PRISON FOR UNION LEADERS.

           In most of the developed countries in the world we can take union participation for granted, but we should never lose sight of the fact that, it is because of the courage and determination of those early groups and individuals who fought long and courageously for that very basic right, sometimes ending in prison, sometimes paying with their lives. Their determined struggle allows us to play our part on our union, but it is not like that in other developing countries, where the employers in conjunction with the state, will do anything and everything, legal or illegal to prevent workers from becoming organised. They are going through now what we went through  in our not so distant past. A show of solidarity can make all the difference to those being persecuted and also to those doing the persecution, they don't like the adverse publicity from abroad.

An appeal from Labour Start.

       The military dictatorship ruling Fiji has arrested the country's two most prominent trade union leaders. 

    On November 4, police arrested Felix Anthony, General Secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) and searched both the union headquarters as well as his home.

       Anthony’s arrest follows closely the arrest of Daniel Urai, President of the FTUC, who has remained in detention since his return from the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia in late October.
       The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is calling on trade unionists around the world to mobilise in our thousands and send messages of protest to the Fijian government.

Please take a moment to send your message today:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1155
And please forward this message to as many people as possible.

Thank you.
Eric Lee

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WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON ---???

  
       Union busting is part and parcel to the capitalist system, it is not one company nor one coutry it is the way the capitalist system works across the planet. The last thing the capitalists want is for the workers to be organised and work together to improve and protect their pay and conditions. A fragmented and unorganised workforce can easily be exploited, wages and conditions can be eroded when the workers don't stand together. It is obvious that it is in the interest of every worker to be an active member of their union and stand united in solidarity with all workers who find themselves in dispute with their employer.

Stand with Longshore Workers 21! HOORAY FOR UNIONISTS willing to be arrested! In a dispute raging through the summer in Longview, Washington, over 120 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have been detained by cops, including Local 21 President Dan Coffman and International President Robert McEllrath. The unionists are fighting to stop international conglomerate EGT Development from breaking a longstanding master agreement the ILWU has at the Port of Longview's publicly subsidized grain terminal. Members of the ILWU are contractually entitled to work the 50 jobs at the terminal, but EGT sued the port for the right to bring in nonunion workers, and inflamed tensions by importing members of Operating Engineers Local 701, who have crossed picket lines to work. On September 7, hundreds of ILWU members stood on railroad tracks to block a train carrying grain to the facility. Police in riot gear attacked protesters with clubs and pepper spray. The next morning, police reported that hundreds of ILWU members from Northwest locals and supporters broke down the gates of the EGT terminal, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain. Security guards retreated and no one was hurt or arrested. An emergency meeting of ILWU locals also shut down other Washington ports. THE ILWU SEES THIS BATTLE as critical to thwart unionbusting drives at other grain terminals. It is all that and more. The struggle at Longview is part of the nationwide resistance against the bosses' austerity attacks. It continues the mobilization begun in Madison, Wisconsin last year. Longview originated as a timber town and longshoremen have worked the Columbia river port for more than 80 years. The community and ILWU won't roll over for EGT, scabs or court orders. The challenge for the rest of organized labor is to mount real national support for this struggle, including stopping the Operating Engineers Union Local 701 from providing scabs. Readers can support these brave unionists by defending them in the press, and by sending donations and messages of solidarity to President Coffman, ILWU Local 21, 617 14th Ave, Suite B, Longview, WA 98632, or email: ilwu21@iinet.com. For background information on the struggle see: Here's why Longshore workers are so angry.

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